Cee-Lo Is Dropping a New Album

Cee-Lo would like you to forget the last several years altogether. The revered rapper, singer and TV personality saw his career grind to a halt after sexual battery allegations and his botched response to them. When a Los Angeles District Attorney declined to move forward in the case of a woman who claims Cee-Lo drugged and raped her, the Goodie Mob legend took to Twitter to suggest that a person who is passed out in their dates room has implicitly given consent for sexual intercourse. Naturally, a media firestorm followed, with Cee-Lo losing a series of festival gigs and TV opportunities. (He also inexplicably chose to side with Bill Cosby.) But he hopes to put all of that behind him later this year with the release of a new solo album, Heart Blanche. Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman tells Billboard that the "Fuck You" star is "in the final stages of completing his album" and to expect it in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Cee-Lo's last proper solo album was 2010's The Lady Killer. He enjoyed a career as one of the 2000s' most unstoppable hitmakers; in addition to his solo work, he was the singing half of Gnarls Barkley, his wildly successful project with Danger Mouse. (Their debut single, "Crazy," peaked at #2 on Billboard and finished at #7 on their year-end list.) Prior to his turn as a pop star, Cee-Lo helped anchor Goodie Mob, whose 1995 debut, Soul Food, is widely considered one of the greatest rap records to ever be released.